By Chris Oddo | Monday, March 10, 2014
Qualifier Camila Giorgi took out fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova in a wild, tense battle on Monday at Indian Wells.
Photo Source: Stephen Dunn/ Getty
The women's draw at the BNP is opening up nicely as three of the top five seeds have been bounced before the round of 16. Today it was Maria Sharapova's turn to disappoint, and the two-time Indian Wells champion did just that, turning in an erratic performance that featured 58 unforced errors, 8 service breaks and only 16 winners against Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi.
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Giorgi's 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory is her first top five victory, but the Italian is no stranger to pulling off surprises at big events after coming through qualifying. She has twice reached the fourth round of Grand Slams as a qualifier, including at last year's U.S. Open where she stunned Caroline Wozniacki in one of the better night matches of the tournament.
Today's two hour and thirty-six minute see-saw battle was not exactly crisp tennis, but it was quite dramatic and it did keep the crowd on Stadium One on the edge of their seats for most of the affair.
“I tried just to play my game,” said Giorgi, “even if I was missing, I didn't change that.”
Giorgi was more aggressive down the stretch, while Sharapova's struggles to be consistent mounted, and even though the Italian twice blew leads in the third set, she was able to snatch the final two games of the match to set up a round of 16 matchup with fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta.
Sharapova, titleless on the season, will drop to No. 7 in the world after the tournament, and she could drop even further if Petra Kvitova continues to progress through the draw.
Sharapova admitted that she's suffered from a lack of match play in the last six months, after pulling out of the U.S. Open with shoulder bursitis. After her fourth-round loss at the Australian Open to Dominika Cibulkova, the four-time Grand Slam champion played only Paris, then elected to skip the Middle East swing in favor of commentating for NBC during the winter Olympics in Sochi.
“I think the physical part of it is something that is hurting me a little bit when we're going into these three set matches,” she lamented.
Earlier Monday, top seed Li Na continued her fine form in the first match of the day on Stadium One, easing past Karolina Pliskova, 6-3, 6-4 in their first career meeting. The victory sets up a round of 16 clash with Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, who bageled Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third set to notch her second consecutive seeded scalp, 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-0.
In other action on a busy Monday at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Sloane Stephens notched a big win over Ana Ivanovic, 7-6(3), 6-4. It was the 20-year-old American's first win in three tries against Ivanovic, and will go a long way to quell the questions surrounding Stephens after she went 0-2 in the Middle East in February.
Stephens will face Alisa Kleybanova in the round of 16. The Russian, still rounding into form after making her return last year from Hodgkins Lymphoma, stayed hot by dispatching Spaniard Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, 6-1, 6-3.
Other winners on Monday were 8th-seeded Petra Kvitova, who defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova, 6-3, 2-6, 6-0, Dominika Cibulkova, who took out Ekaterina Makarova, 6-4, 7-5, and Flavia Pennetta, who earned her fifth victory in five career matches with Sam Stosur, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.